NSW: Police warn shoppers to be vigilant of credit skimming

AAP General News (Australia)
12-21-1998
NSW: Police warn shoppers to be vigilant of credit skimming

SYDNEY, Dec 21 AAP - Technology had allowed criminals to use the magnetic strips on credit
cards to book thousands of dollars worth of goods to unsuspecting cardholders' bills, police
said today.

Thieves were now able to copy information from the black strip onto lost or stolen plastic
cards or counterfeit cards, Commercial Crime Agency director Michael Holmes said.

Known as skimming, the technique allowed criminals to use the cards to buy goods, Mr Holmes
said.

"In most cases, the victim of skimming is unaware of what has happened until they receive
their monthly statement," he said.

Skimming was first discovered in Asia in 1994, he said.

"The process has evolved to the extent that portable personal computers, miniature magnetic
reading devices and other card read/write devices are used to skim the magnetic strip (and
take information) from cards," he said.

"By its very nature skimming is hard to detect."

He said people could guard against skimming by checking their bank statements once a month,
not letting their credit cards out of their sight and destroying the carbon copies of the
vouchers produced by the manual credit card system.

People convicted of skimming faced up to 10 years in jail, he said.

AAP shm/tsm/cjh

KEYWORD: CARDS

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